|
BAPTIZO AND THE SEPTUAGINT
In 2Kings 5:10 Elisha sent a message to Naaman: "Go and wash in (or at) the Jordan seven times . . . " Naaman finally acted as he had been told, and
this would be according to the Law of Moses in respect to leprosy as instructed in Lev. 14:7,9:
"And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean . . . and he shall wash his flesh in water, and he
shall be clean . . . "
This is the method appointed by God and the prophet would advise Naaman accordingly. Naaman's disease was a local infection and Naaman had trouble understanding the
washing of his whole body instead of just one spot, 2Kings 5:11. Christ sent the blind man to wash his eyes in the Pool of Siloam - a fountain basin wherein bodily immersion would be
impractical. It is interesting that Christ used the incident of the healing of Naaman, the Syrian, as an illustration of how God worked with others when Israel was in disobedience. It is
also interesting to note that of the twenty lepers mentioned in Scripture none was healed by self-water baptism, nor was any other leper told to "go wash himself."
The LXX speaks of transgressions BAPTIZING the prophet, (The A.V. differs from the LXX):
. . . my heart wanders, and transgression BAPTIZES me; my soul is occupied with fear. Isa. 21:4.
The prophet had reason to fear for his nation, after two hundred and sixty-five years of national revolt against God under twenty despotic rulers, the sword of the Assyrian
threatened to destroy the nation; the prophet identifies himself with the wayward people and seeks deliverance from the sword of the Assyrian. The nation's sins are the prophet's
baptism as our were those of the Saviour.
Before the New Testament usages of BAPTIZO are considered, the aforementioned illustrations of BAPTISM show the oft tragic and fatal associations between the object baptized and the baptismal element, the result being frequently death and some sort of entombment. The baptismal element is that which engulfs, drowns, or overwhelms, having been used of debt, sin, death, suffering, a billowing wave or flooding water, destruction, or even blood - as of a sword sheathed in a body. The Hebrew O.T. usage allowed washing and sprinkling to be included in the meaning. The object baptized and the baptismal element are closely allied so as to make the identity and destiny of the one the same as the other. In the O.T. symbolism the identity of one with the other was essential to convey the import of the symbolism used.
That the word BAPTISM should be so weakened as to mean only a watery ritual or some symbol of reality when the reality has already come, is indeed tragic.
HOW IS BAPTIZO TO BE TRANSLATED?
As mentioned earlier, BAPTISM and its family of words, have been transliterated from the Greek to the English. Some translations have tried to find an English
equivalent but in doing so usually show a predisposition to a certain mode of water baptism, as though water were the main element synonymous with BAPTISM. Among Reform churches teaching
Baptismal Regeneration very little water is used, while others, teaching a Symbolical Meaning of water baptism, use much water. In Scripture the water-mode is left to inference, as for
instance, John came baptizing WITH water, Luke 3:16, if possible with running water as the O.T. enjoined, hence, the Jordan River. In translating, the classic usage should be
considered for it must not be forgotten that in the Greek-parent usage of baptism it meant death, entombment, drowning, killing, overwhelming trials and troubles. It meant to be under the dire
influence of someone, or something, such as intoxicants. If a ship was baptized, it was sunk; if a city was baptized, it was put to the sword; if a person was baptized in the sea, he was
drowned; if a man was baptized in wine, he was intoxicated; in debt, bankrupt; in sorrow, desolate; in death, dead. There is a unique singular BAPTISM in which the baptismal element of actual
death (not symbolical or spiritual) is the method and mode of bringing our need and God's redemptive provision to fruition for us all.
BAPTISM AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
It is a misnomer to speak of all the Books of the Bible as either the Old or New Testaments. The "Old Testament" (Old Covenant) in reality started with
Moses and technically ended with the death of Christ; the "New Covenant" was a covenant-provision in the death of Christ for the covenant people, Israel. This, ratified by His blood,
was offered to that people, and was refused by them as a nation. John the Baptist was the last of the O.T. prophets, (albeit Christ was a Minister of Circumcision to confirm the promises of the
fathers); the New Covenant was not operative during the lifetime of John the Baptist nor in the lifetime of Christ and His Apostles. The New Covenant provided for in the death of Christ for
Israel, would have replaced the "Old" made with the same people had Israel as a nation accepted it, Hebrews 8:7, 13; 10:9. Direful warnings were given to those who would tread under
foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the new covenant a worthless thing, Hebrews 10:27-31. The warnings were fulfilled in A.D. 70 with the destruction of the nation so they were neither
an Old Covenant nor New Covenant people. The "old" could not be practiced and the "New" was not consummated. Some of the so-called "Old Testament" books do
not function under the "Old Covenant" given to Moses -- as when the ten or two tribes were in exile, or the book of Genesis or Job, written before Moses existed. So also, some
so-called "New Testament" or "New Covenant" books are not "New Covenant" at all. Particularly, the Ephesian and Colossian epistles, for in these the former
distinct covenant people no longer exist as a separate entity from the nations, rather their national existence has been abolished as well as their covenant privileged position. The
"wall" keeping them separate from the nations had been destroyed; their holy days, feasts, new moons, sabbaths, temple, priesthood, priestcraft, and baptisms were no more. Instead of
a "New Covenant Israel and Judah" (the ten and two tribes) God made a "New Humanity" in Christ in which all racial, cultural, and privileged position ceased to exist. These
radical changes, in keeping with the dispensation of the grace of God to all people, would be a critical factor on the "how," "when" and "where" of baptisms and how they
are to be interpreted and applied. For instance, John the Baptist, baptized in order to make Christ manifest to Israel, (John 1:31); no one else ever used this as a reason for
water-baptizing. Nor is the typology certain since heretofore Jews baptized themselves.
NOTE:
1. Mark 7:1-18 and Luke 11:38:
The baptism here mentioned was a ceremonial dipping of the fist into water, if the person was alone, or by a slave if he was a person of
distinction. This was a meaningless ritualistic washing rejected by Christ; and denounced by Him as the commandments of men. It was a part of the hundred and one "extra"
commandments added to the Law of Moses that made it such a heavy burden. The subtlety of this was that it seemed to offer a holiness greater than that enjoined in the Word of God. Christ
had no patience with the niceties of religion: the superciliousness of wearing peacock vestments, of venerating men or relics, of special watery rituals for hands and pots and pans.
Anything that was of religious fraud or priest-craft received short shriff from Him.
2. Hebrews 9:10:
The BAPTISMS spoken of here are the Israelitish-Levitical baptisms as formulated under the Law of Moses. The whole are branded as "carnal
(fleshly) ordinances" that had been imposed upon Israel as regulatory statutes, mainly after the "golden calf" incident. Once Christ had fulfilled the Sabbatical typology, the
Sacrificial, and other types involving washing, then it would be meaningless to continue these in the presence of the reality. For Peter, a Jew, to be told to ". . . kill, and eat. .
." Acts 10:11-16, of unclean or "non-kosher" food, would cause him not only to wash his body but his mouth as well. This was one of the first intimations of a turning away from
the exclusiveness of the Jew and the inclusion of other races.
. . . which stood only in meats and in drinks, and divers (different) washings (baptisms), and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until
the time of reformation . . .
In some instances these baptismal-washings involved the whole body, sometimes a part. Washing with the fist was to plunge the fist into water up to the elbows, or have
water poured over the fist to the elbows. It was sufficient if water passed over the body, or if the body was placed wholly or in part in the water at once or in stages, or if the object was
already in the water and additional water was poured over the subject, as was more usual, the person did this for himself:
. . . and he shall wash himself in water, and shall be clean.
Ex. 29:4; Lev. 14:8; Numbers 19:19.
And:
. . . Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet with water from it. Ex. 30:19; 2Kings 3:11.
Josephus, Ant. 111.6:2, mentions the function of the Brazen Laver in the Tabernacle:
. . . within these gates was the Brazen Laver for purification, having a base (basin) beneath of the same material, whence the priests might wash (in the basin, not in
laver-reservoir) their hands and pour down (shower) upon their feet . . .
Immersion in the Laver proper would cause it to be unclean and therefore unfit for purification rites.
|
Scripture Research - The Baptism Edition 
